Kejetia Market is supposedly the largest open air market in
West Africa. It is in Ghana's second city, Kumasi and is certainly huge and extremely
busy. We negotiated everything to pass from one side to the other. People carrying
anything you can think of and stalls selling more. Carcasses of fresh meat are “chopped”
right next to women selling tiny packages of “Dolly Blue” and Tescos own brand
shower gel. Fabrics in all colours and patterns hanging up for us to admire, beside farming implements. A young woman passed us with armfuls of pristine plastic carrier
bags for sale from Lidl, Morrisons and other well known UK outlets.
It was all fascinating and naturally, I delved in my bag for
my camera. This is the only shot I got....and it doesn't even show the market......before I was yelled at by a group of
locals nearby. You would have thought I’d produced a pistol!
Evidently, Photography is a complete no-no here. The fact
that it was a distance shot made no difference. They knew I could zoom in and
identify anyone! I got to wondering if the whole place was full of
international criminals. I appreciate that many Africans do not want their
image captured and I always ask if I am taking closer pictures. However, I thought
this was a little extreme. Does anyone recognise this man?
Second hand clothes and shoes are everywhere in mountains on
the pavements and hanging on railings. The items discarded in collection bags
on doorsteps in Europe, USA and other wealthier places are of much better quality
than new clothes available here. We see people walking around in T shirts with
inappropriate slogans they probably cannot translate and some from places they
could never hope to visit. There are thriving businesses involved in washing,
pressing and displaying this clothing for sale. Although the sight of it all
shames me, I’m glad so many of our rejects have another life and am sure in the
second existence they are worn for much longer until they fall apart.
We didn’t buy anything in Kejetia Market. It was all too
hectic and there wasn’t really anything I needed. The sights, sounds and smells
were enough. Thousands of people must live there and I wondered what it was
like at night. Does it ever sleep?
No comments:
Post a Comment